Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 16, No 4,(2016), pp. 525-531 Copyright © 2016 MAA Open Access. Printed in Greece. All rights reserved.

10.5281/zenodo.220979 IS STAR SHAPED: S.T.A.R. THE FIRST ITALIAN APP FOR THE SPREAD OF CULTURAL ASTRONOMY

M. Chirri1, L. Lombardi1,2, L. Ruggiero1 and L. Fabrizi1

1Civico Museo Geopaleontologico “Ardito Desio” Rocca di Cave, Rome (IT) - Department of Science, University of "Roma Tre" 2Department of Earth Science, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italia

Received: 04/03/2016 Accepted: 15/05/2016 Corresponding author: Maurizio Chirri ([email protected])

ABSTRACT

STAR is the first italian App for smartphone and tablet entirely dedicated to the cultural astronomy sites in Rome. The user will be guided on a journey to discover mithraea, sundials and Astronomy related places of the Capital. In most cases, these sites are visited by millions of tourists for their historical and artistic value but their astronomical significance point of view is not valorise. Despite many ancient monuments also enclose a strong astronomical significance, linked for example to the original constructive purposes, this aspect is largely ignored by the general public. The aim of STAR is therefore offer the opportunity to discover an unexpected, original and evocative side of the city of Rome to a widest possible audience through an innovative technological support, simple and attractive, which STAR wants to be. This App aims to involve the foreign tourist as the Roman citizen rediscovering the city, the neophyte as the expert of this topic. With STAR it is possible to modulate the itinerary, to choose the number and type of sites to visit, depending on the time available, and the favorite way to reach the sites. Moreover, the user will have the opportunity to select the type of presentation of the site based on the desired level of detail. To add emotional impact to the experience, making more effective the communication of contents, the App allow to reveal the original appearance of the sites or bring to light hidden details using the virtual augmented reality. This tool also allows you to discover places otherwise not be visited because they are not easly accessible, in particular for those who are suffering from disabilities, with particular reference to mitrei for their underground nature. Moreover, STAR replace or compensates the lack of in situ traditional communication systems, mostly absent or very reduced.

KEYWORDS: App, Cultural Astronomy, Rome, mithraea, sundials.

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1. INTRODUCTION During the period between 2004-2015, the course of Museology (Master Degree in Technology for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, University of Rome "La Sapienza" ) included a short course of museography and museology applied to archeological sites, monuments and artworks connected to the History of Astronomy and the Cultural Astronomy in Rome. During this period, the students produced papers and thesis on several sites connect with the Cultural Astronomy, such as historical sundials, ancient obelisks, mithrea, museal collections.

All these works had to be included in a project aimed to create a spread thematic museum, a Figure 2. Star shape of Rome in P.M. Lugli (1923-2008) map. particular museal tipology, on History of Astronomy in Rome. Such hypothesis was perfect for our aims, giving The student's works was based not only on to the thematic museum of Astronomy in Rome an bibliographic and website researches, but mainly on enhanced cultural suggestion. direct investigations to obtain measures, data, The authors underline that the present work is not original iconographic materials and others. aimed to present new archeological discoveries but So, the students of the different academic years to show an example of museography applied to the have conducted museographic exercises on several spreading and valorization of Cultural Heritage sites sites, among these historical sundials, obelisks, through innovative technologies. mithrea, monuments with astronomical meanings, The best occasion to realize this project had been museal collections. During this works, we studied the selection of the Regione Lazio, expecially with accuracy the ancient cartography of our city, targeted for young creative people and aimed to the especially the maps of Etienne Duperac (1535-1604) development of innovative applications for and the great map of G.B. Nolli (1692-1756) (as smartphone and tablets. Each winning young showed in Fig.1). partecipant had the occasion to be connected and work with a company of this sector for the realization of the App. The project S.T.A.R. (Sites of astronomical turism in Rome), presented by our former student Dr. Livia Lombardi, in collaboration with Dr. Ludovica Ruggiero and Dr. Lucilla Fabrizi, was chosen by Mobile Soft s.r.l., a leading company in software development for smartphone and tablet, and classified first on the list of this selection. 2. THE CULTURAL ASTRONOMY SITES INCLUDED IN S.T.A.R. The actual development of S.T.A.R. includes ten Figure 1. Maps of Etienne Duperac (1535-1604), area of Circus Maximum, and of G.B. Nolli (1692-1756) sites, with astronomical meaning. Particularly, for the Horologium Augusti in Campo Marzio had been In this way, we have recognised a particular developed an original virtual recostruction, based on shape of Rome, formerly identified by the studies research and studies, offering the occasion to obtain and researches of the famous archeologist R. valuable museological, museographics and scientific Lanciani (1845-1926) (Lanciani, 1902) and in the later results. It is important underline that the muse- time, by the architect and urbanist P.M. Lugli (1923- ographic works on some mithraic sites in Rome 2008) (Lugli, 2006). Their works hypothisized that (among those opened) gave original results regard- some civil architectonic complexes in the imperial ing some enigmatic astronomical characteristics in age, would have built in specific sites, to enhance the frescoes of Barberini's Mithreum and possible and to underline some morphological characteristics extraordinary astronomical events, like planetary of our city, drawing an “altera forma urbis”, a star superconjunctions, that could had inspired the shaped city (as showed in Fig.2). building of some mithraic cult sites.

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2.1 Horologium Augusti report of the digs occurred in 1480, in the occasion of The Horogium Augusti was the major solar sun- works in some houses of this area. dial in the classic ancient world, builded in 10 B.C. in These witnesses tells of a large travertine platform Campo Marzio, with the Psammetico's obelisk , now with a certain number of hour bronze lines, with in- in p.zza Montecitorio. scriptions and musive works of the winds. These To realize the reconstruction we had to make a and other information had been used by A. Donati, choice between two recostruction models, proposed in his “Roma vetus ac recens: utriusque aedificiis ad by different researchers. eruditam cognitionem espositis “, for a graphic re- The firt one was E. Buchner, an archeologist of construction of the zone between Porta Flaminia and The Deutsch Archeologische Institute, who digged Campo Marzio. the area in Via Campo Marzio at the end of the sev- The drawing of the Augustus's Sundial clearly enties years of the twentieth century and found a presents many useful and original details, particular- piece of the ancient bronze meridian line of the sun- ly the special orientation of the obelisk and his ped- dial. estal, on the meridian line (as showed in Fig.3). He proposed that the ancient device would have had a large travertine platform, with a certain num- ber of hour lines (variable between 7 and 11), the monthly hyperboles and the meridian bronze line having metallic daily lists. Another recostruction model was proposed later by various authors, including Heslin (Heslin et al. , 2007) and was based only on the obelisk, his pedestal and the meridian line with narrow travertine slabs. An answer to solve which of these two reconstruc- tion is the correct one could come from a new set of geological prospections, conducted by georadar non invasive method, aimed to find or not the remains of the ancient platform, probably presents at 6.5-8.5 m under the street ground. The area of Campo Marzio had been largely and deeply altered by several works and the remains of Figure 3. A. Donati graphic recostruction of the area between ancient large travertine platform could been entirely Porta Flaminia and Campo Marzio. removed (Lanciani, 1902). So, for the reconstruction of the Horologium Au- A wide collection of citations and data was recov- gusti (as showed in Fig.4), we have chosen the Buch- ered by the works of the so called “antiquarians” in ner's model, because more consistent with the pre- Rome between the XV-XVI century: humanists, pre vailing historical and literary sources. archaeologists, draughtsmen, and engravers. Among these, Flavio Biondo (1392-1463), Pomponio Leto (1428-1498) (Pomponio, 1953), Andrea Fulvio (1470- 1527) (Andrea, 1588), Bartolomeo Malviani (1488- 1566) (Malviani, 1632), Lucio Fauno (1501?-1560?), Pirro Ligorio (1513-1583), Michele Mercati (1541- 1593), Alessandro Donati (1584-1640) (Donati, 1648), A.M. Bandini (1725-1803) (Bandini, 1751). Some of these authors had a direct knowledge of the digs, with specific witnesses of unknown details. Indeed, the only available classical sources were some lines in the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder (L. XXXVI parr. 71-73 cit. op.). Figure 4. S.T.A.R. 3D reconstruction of the Horologium Particularly, two authors Pomponio Leto, in the Augusti “Excerpta a Pomponio dum inter ambulandum Other original and useful notes of history of as- cuidam domino ultramontano reliquias ac ruinas tronomy, astrology, metrology, calendars history, urbis ostenderet ” and Andrea Fulvio, in the “Dele obtained in our work, will be presented in next arti- antichità di Roma” (L.V. cap. XVI), give us a direct cles of our group. 2.2 Santa Maria degli Angeli Meridian

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In 1561, Pope Pius IV commissioned the building ematician Andronikos, that on the south side had a of the Santa Maria degli Angeli Basilica. semi-spherical sundial, open to the north, with gno- Michelangelo designed the church inside the ruins monic hole summit, presents considerable similari- of the ancient Baths of Diocletian. This gigantic ties with the Pantheon and seems actually a realiza- church contains a meridian that Pope Clement XI tion in scale of the great dome. Inside the dome, in had constructed. Between 1700 and 1702, the archi- fact, there are lines very similar to those of the dome tect and astronomer Francesco Bianchini built this of the Pantheon. gnomonic hole sundial to precisely calculate the day 2.5 Barberini mithraeum on which Easter will fall. The light beam that enters through the gnomonic In 1936, the Barberini Mithraeum was discovered hole at solar noon will create a light ellipse on the during the construction of the Savorgnan di Brazzà pavement. Depending on the sun height above the villa in the garden behind . horizon, this ellipse occurs every day at a different The mithraeum is in a rectangular underground point along the meridian line. room measuring about 12 by 6 metres with a barrel- Day after day, an ellipse – a circle of light – runs vaulted ceiling. It likely dates back to the third cen- along the meridian line through the various constel- tury AD and is located inside a second-century lations, just as the sun apparently travels. building. This ellipse's movement between the two ex- The axis of the mithraeum is directed towards the tremes of the meridian line during the year allow it east horizon at the sunrise on the day of the summer to be used as a calendar. solstice (N60 ° E). The information about the artistic details of this The presence of a fresco sets apart this mithraeum. site are based on an original petrographic research, In fact, the Barberini, Santa Prisca and S. Stefano Ro- realized in collaboration with the Science Depart- tondo mithraea are the only in Rome with frescoes. ment of Universitiy of Roma Tre. This research was focused on the stony materials used for the zodiacal drawings inspired by the “Uranometria” of J. Bayer (1572-1625), along the 44,2 mt of length of the merid- ian line. Other information are available for the APP users, particularly regarding the extraordinary accu- racy of the astronomical measures, obtained by Francesco Bianchini, for specific calendar researches and for the studies of Earth's movements in the space. 2.3 St. Peter's Meridian St. Peter's Square was designed by Gian Luigi Bernini and completed in 1667 after 11 years of work. The world's largest meridian stands in the centre of Figure 4. Barberini Mithraeum fresco – detail of the fishes the piazza encircled by a long colonnade (320 me- The central representation shows the design of tres). The sundial was built in 1817. The gnomon is numerous stars, about 18. The god is represented the obelisk itself, which is one of few Roman-era with the cloak with the seven-star enigmatic pattern. obelisks that was never knocked down. A replica of A special attention have to be focused on the altar the original bronze globe that was said to have held wall, on the far right, where it is possible to see a Julius Caesar’s ashes tops the obelisk. The obelisk is drawing of two fishes (as showed in Figure 4). The 25.5 m high and reach a 37.5 m height with the base fishes are a typical Christian symbolism and the and the bronze globe. presence in a mithraeum may be explained by an 2.4 Pantheon astronomical interpretation. The drawing in fact pre- sents two fishes oriented inversely, indicating pre- The Pantheon is one of the most extraordinary cisely the symbolism of the Zodiac. They could be and best-preserved ancient Roman monuments. related to the new precessional era that at the begin- According to the scholar Robert Hannah, the Pan- ning of the Christian era had moved the spring theon oculus and dome are a colossal version of the equinox to this Constellation. small hemispherical sundials often seen in backyard gardens with a hole at the top. 2.6 mithraeum For example the sundial of Tenos, an island of the Cyclades, made by the Greek astronomer and math-

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The Circus Maximus Mithraeum was discovered sanctuary was rectangular (11.25 by 4.20 metres) and in 1931. In the latter half of the third century AD, this lavishly decorated with frescoes, which are now al- place of worship was constructed inside a large se- most completely indecipherable, and statues that are cond-century AD complex that probably served the partially conserved. The cycle of frescoes illustrate public. The mithraeum contains a series of rooms the grades of initiation that followers underwent. that are connected and not the typical, one-room The entire complex is oriented to the east- layout. In ancient times, the entrance was most northeast. At the left of the niche is still present a probably located opposite the present entrance that graffito showing a date: November 21 202. This date was likely used as a secondary entryway. can be interpreted as the initiation of one of the new Between the first and second rooms, it is possible members or more probably, as the day of creation of to see two aediculae (small shrines) with small col- mithraeum. In both cases, it confirms that the umns resting on consoles, a type of bracket. The mithraeum was then existing and active. marble bases inside these niches probably supported Searching the explanation of this graffito, we no- small statues of the torch-bearers Cautes and Cau- tice that an unusual astronomical event occurred in topates, who respectively held torches upwards and coincidence of November 21, 202 D.C. downwards. 2.10 Santo Stefano Rotondo Mithraeum The second and third rooms contain prominent marble seats where followers sat during functions. Santo Stefano Rotondo Church is the oldest exist- The last room was symbolically dedicated to the ing example of a Christian church with a circular ritual of tauroctony, the ritualistic sacrifice of a bull, layout in Rome. Founded in the fifth century, Pope and houses a wonderful example of Mithraic art: a Simplicius commissioned the church that was mod- bas-relief of the god Mithras. elled after the first Oriental Christian sanctuaries. From 1973 until 1975, excavations beneath the 2.7 Caracalla Mithraeum church's floor revealed one of the largest mithraea The are one of the most impres- uncovered in Rome. sive examples of ancient Roman thermal baths. Along the southwest slope of the Caelian Hill in Emperor Caracalla had the baths constructed on ancient Rome district called Caelimontium, there are the east flank of Aventine Hill between 212 and 217 many underground spaces, some better known than AD. others. During the excavations, some structures were Hidden underneath the northwest exedra, the discovered that were part of the enormous Castra third-century AD Caracalla Mithraeum is the largest Peregrinorum, the barracks for provincial armies discovered in Rome. This place of worship could posted in Rome. accommodate up to 100 followers. In the original A part of the first building contained sleeping sanctuary, it's still possible to admire a fresco por- quarters connected by a corridor. In the second block traying the god Mithras. of barracks, a mithraeum was discovered that had The mithraeum was discovered during excava- been built when the barracks were operational. The tions in 1912. soldiers worshipped in the sanctuary. This is not surprising since was the most popular 2.8 San Clemente Mithraeum religion among those serving in the army. This char- The San Clemente in Laterano Basilica is re- acteristic also explains its wide reach into every cor- nowned for its elaborate layers of architecture. The ner of the empire. mithraeum is located at the lowest of the three levels. The mithraeum covered a rather small, rectangu- The sanctuary's main room is rectangular with a lar space of about 4 by 10 m when it was first built star-covered ceiling. The orientation of the temple is around 180 AD. approximately east-west, with the altar facing east A unique feature of this mithraeum, consists of a (N 75 ° E). long inscription on a small marble altar, a prayer to During excavations, a statue portraying the god the god, whose dedication was performed by a faith- Mithras was discovered. A masterfully created bas- ful, Cascelia Elegans. The "Cascelia prayer" is a relief of the tauroctony was also found. unique and problematic discovery, since the women were not allowed to Mithraic mysteries. Moreover, 2.9 Santa Prisca Mithraeum this fact is very unusual taking into account that the From 1934 to 1939, the priests of Santa Prisca mithraeum was in a barracks. Church uncovered beneath the church the ruins of a The orientation of mithraeum-entrance is towards mithraeum dating from 202 AD (the archeological Southeast (about N125 ° S). researches were conducted by J.Vermaseren et al. , 3. HOW DOES S.T.A.R. WORK? during the period between 1953-1966). The cult main

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From the Home menu you can visualize all STAR In fact, S.T.A.R. include the possibility to carry out sites on the map of Rome. the CUSTOM JOURNEY, which allows to choose the By clicking on each site, a pop-over window will sites to visit among all those available in S.T.A.R., appear showing its name. A set of intuitive icons and THEMED JOURNEY, which narrows down the below will guide you to any information you might choice of the sites belonging to either of the two be looking for regarding the chosen site. categories, Mithreum or Sundial. A traffic-light colour coding system is used to Furthermore, S.T.A.R. allows to choose the describe the availability of the site: favorite way to reach the sites. Open to the public In fact, the App contain within it specific features Booking in advance required able to follow the user all the time during his trip Not yet accessible, but you will be able to visit and allowing him to choose how to reach the sites of remotely thanks to the STAR multimedia content interest beatween WALKING, where the integrated S.T.A.R. Navigator suggest the quickest way to walk The presence of the 3D ICON indicates the availa- to the site, or using PUBLIC TRANSPORTS, where bility of contents implemented using virtual or aug- S.T.A.R. provide all necessary information (such as mented reality. bus stop/tube ID, line name, average time and You can access the real-time 3D reconstruction more) to guide to the destination. with first-person view only once reached the site and Then, S.T.A.R. elaborate the quickest journey that from the observation areas defined. best suits the user using as a starting and finishing This areas were established to ensure the correct point his current location. view of the 3D reconstruction as well as to guarantee In the section FOR MORE INFORMATION, the safety of the app users. S.T.A.R. includes: If you leave the area (or if you want to access the 1. FOR THE BOOKWORMS 3D content off-site), you will access only the flyby List of the in depth resources organised by view (from above). topic, site and more. The page dedicates to each site contains: 2. ROME IS STAR SHAPED 1. GENERAL INFO regarding the site such as A city shaped like a Sun, symbol of power at booking details, ticket cost, opening/closing the centre of the Mediterranean and the time. Ecumene in general, that would radiate 2. WRITTEN GUIDE that contains a brief de- civilisation. scription of the site. By clicking on the More A fascination more than two millennia old, icon it is possible to access the extended ver- buried in small references in the classic texts, sion of the guide, with more in-depth info, for inspired by monuments and building rich in those who are looking for more detailed in- symbolisms, that like a STAR shed light on formation, on the basis of previous experience the discoveries and vision of scholars and and personal curiosity. researchers. 3. AUDIOGUIDE A simple and engaging guide 3. HOW DOES A SUNDIAL WORK? accessible with a single click. The science behind this fascinating ancient 4. VIRTUAL OR AUGMENTED REALITY technological device. Simply clicking on the icon and aiming the 4. WHAT SOLAR TIME IS IT? device in the direction shown, it is possible to Toolkit that allows to automatically calculate visualize on the screen of the smarphone or the solar time based on the time on your tablet the reconstruction of the original watch. appearance of the site. All materials contained in S.T.A.R. are available in These contents are also available in off line both Italian and English, with the intention of mode or when it is not possible for you to extension to other languages in the future. The physically visit the site. attention to internationalization is essential because 5. GALLERY this tool also wants to involve the foreign tourists This section includes all images of the site, who, in many cases, have a marked sensitivity including those indicated in the audio and towards the astronomical culture. written guide. With S.T.A.R. it is possible to modulate the itinerary, to choose the number and type of sites to visit, depending on the time available.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The app STAR was realised thanks to the Programma Operativo Regione Lazio - European funds. The authors would like to thank for the software developed the MobileSoft srl. (Walter Cavalcante and Laura Berellini), for the 3D reconstruction the Illusionetwork (Fabrizio Terranova and Gabriele Leonardi), for the Translations the AlfaBeta - Language & Web Consultants and finally for the audioguides the Voice Professionals Italy (STAR is voiced by Maurizio Bruno and Olga Leo). The authors would especially like to thank the University of Rome "La Sapienza", particularly Prof. Luigi Campanella and Prof. Giorgio Manzi, holders of the course of Museology during which were elaborated the museological contents used as a starting point for the development of STAR. In this regard, we would like to thank all the students of the course of Museology (Master Degree in Technology for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, University of Rome "La Sapienza" ). Special thanks to the Direction of the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, for the aid and the kindness during the bibliographic research on rare books, fondamental to get rare iconographic materials. REFERENCES AA.VV., (2008) Egitto a Roma: Obelischi, Ed. Biblioteca della Camera dei Deputati. Andrea, F. ( 1588) De le antichità di Roma, Ed. Venezia Bandini, A. M. (1751) De obelisco Caesaris Augusti, Ed. Roma Catamo, M., Lucarini, C. (2002) Il cielo in basilica, Ed. Agami Donati, A. (1648) Roma vetus ac recens: utriusque aedificiis ad eruditam cognitionem espositis (Editio secunda cor- rectior) Roma Heslin P. (2007) Augustus, Domitian and the So-called Horologium Augusti, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 97, pp 1-20 Lanciani, R. A. (1902) Storia degli scavi di Roma e notizie intorno le collezioni romane di antichità, E. Loeschler & Co., Roma Lugli, P. M. (2006) L'Agro Romano e l' “altera forma” di Roma antica, Ed. Gangemi Malviani, B. (1632) Le antichità di Roma, Ed. Roma Plinio, G. S. ( 1982) Storia naturale, Ed. Einaudi Pomponio, L. (1953) Excerpta a Pomponio dum inter ambulandum cuidam domino ultramontano reliquias ac ruinas urbis ostenderet , Ed. Valentini & Zucchetti

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